The story
Read it all →How Maricopa came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Maricopa.
The first post office opened in 1901, and Maricopa incorporated in 1911. The city was named after the Maricopa people.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
CHistory
History · Maricopa
Maricopa’s post office opened in 1901, and 23% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 30% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1911 on and old-book passages.
1901first post office
0on the National Register
23%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
2famous people
Quick answers
How Maricopa began
When was Maricopa founded?
1901
The Maricopa post office opened in 1901, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1910.
2020 census: 1,026125 years
How historic is Maricopa?
C
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 30% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Maricopa post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1910.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Maricopa’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Maricopa is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Maricopa’s overall grade.
Founding era1901, from the first post office: founded 1900–1944, an older era than 9% of U.S. townsDHomes built before 194023.0% of homes (±9.2) · typical CA town 3.4% · U.S. 8.4%B+National RegisterNo listings counted · typical CA town 0.0 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 30%
NewerOlder
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Maricopa’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (31% of California towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1910 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Maricopa’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Maricopa’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Maricopa’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Maricopa in 1914
Passages that mention Maricopa, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Kern County California1914Read the page →
Read the text
Maricopa has good. banking facilities, and is well served in the field of journalism by the Maricopa Oil News. Among the prospects for the future is a good automobile road connecting Maricopa with the Ventura coast, and an electric railroad from Los Angeles via Tejon pass through Maricopa to the other West Side towns. ' The citizens of Maricopa have been actively promoting the coast road for a year and more past, and are now very hopeful that it will be built. This will place Maricopa on the line of much through travel from other parts of the valley to the sea, and the electric line, if it is
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Kern County California1914 · page 1278Read the page →
Read the text
3esides being manager of the Anaconda lease of forty acres with three producing wells, located on section 12, 11-24, Mr. Dickinson is proprietor of the Maricopa Realty Company, a director and one of the. largest stockholders in the Maricopa Bank, builder and owner of the Dickinson block, the original locator of the Adeline Extension Townsite subdivision in Maricopa, and with others a leading factor in the erection in 1911 of a two-story brick block, 63x93 feet in dimensions, the largest and most attractive public building in the city, occupied by the Maricopa postoffice and the Carroll hotel, the Maricopa
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present1914 · page 613Read the page →
Read the text
The Maricopa Oil Company owned forty acres lying in the southwest quarter of section 1. 12-23. and out of this tract they leased seventeen acres to the Gate Citv Oil Company, which later bought the land and platted the town site of Maricopa. As early as 1903 an extension of the Sunset Railroad had been built to Monarch (practicallv the nucleus of Maricopa), but it was not until some time afterward that the seventeen acres on section 1 were platted and sold. Upon the incorporation of Maricona in 1910 other lands were included in +he town site, so that now the town lies on sections 1.2. 11 and 12.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present1914 · page 1376Read the page →
Read the text
civilian employe. Upon returning to the United States after his resignation he was attracted to Bakersfield by reason of recent oil discoveries in the Kern river field. Later he secured employment as a driller in the Sunset field and drilled the discovery well at the town of Maricopa, later spending three years as a driller on the Peerless lease in the Kern river field. Recognized as an oil operator of unusual capability, he was chosen superintendent of the Consolidated Copper Oil Company on section 2 at Maricopa and later as superintendent did the first development work on the Pioneer Midway at Fellows,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Maricopa, 1901 to 1915
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
Maricopa, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1910s1 item
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
2024
2009
2009
2009
2008Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewMaricopa, California, Oct. 7th, 1911, 1911
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Maricopa’s page.
Retake this view · +15Famous people
See all →2 famous people were born in Maricopa
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Places that used to be
Places now gone
Maricopa’s post office has been open since 1901.
Gone or out of use
Maricopa Airportairport
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Maricopa’s history
What year was Maricopa founded?
The Maricopa post office opened in 1901, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1910.
How does Maricopa rank for history?
Maricopa is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Maricopa?
23% of Maricopa’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.2 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1970.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.